


In the Future

by lilsuzn



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, 恋与制作人 | Liàn Yǔ Zhì Zuò Rén | Mr. Love: Queen's Choice (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:33:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29165748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilsuzn/pseuds/lilsuzn
Summary: Basically the MLQC characters in Hogwarts. Enjoy.
Relationships: Lǐ Zéyán | Victor/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 3





	In the Future

This fic is inspired by an absolutely wonderful work I found on tumblr. Check it out, it's very worth it ♥

https://zeyans.tumblr.com/post/640018095912730624/req-hogwarts-yule-ball-mlqc

*******

A young woman lays comfortably at a dark, picked, leather couch with her lace and head in a big, old book. Apart from her breathing, the only sound in the room is a quiet cracking from the fireplace. Everyone else in the Slytherin dungeon was long asleep. She should surely have joined them quite a while ago, but it hasn't seemed like an option. It rarely has.

How many nights has she spent like this already? Enough for her prefect to be barely able not to frown when he sees her and she couldn’t really blame him. A high grade’s score is really important for their house to maintain and she was a top student after all. Well, a co-top student, but she was telling herself that’s just because professor Binns clearly had some problem with her.

Fully consumed by her reading, the girl doesn’t seem to be aware of the sound of approaching steps. Someone was walking towards the common room and judging by the shape of the shadow - no one friendly.

\- Ghazali, what do you think you’re doing here?

The sudden sound of the prefect's voice made her almost fall off the couch. Not because it was loud or aggressive. It was rather quiet, but deep and assertive, despite the clear, airy exhaustion that could be heard in it.

She looked up to find a tall, broad shouldered figure dressed in an elegant set of checked pajamas and long, black robe looking at her from across the room. Black hair in disarray. Skin even paler than usual. He surely looked like he’s the one that should be sleeping.

\- Em... I couldn’t sleep so I came down here not to wake the other girls.

She suited with a feminine, soothing voice that clashed with his. Irony easy to sense in her tone.

The young man said nothing, just huffed with irritation and in more aggressively sounding steps, crossed the room to stand above the rebelliant, who began readjusting herself on the couch. His face in deeply unsatisfied frown, his lips parting to say something with even more assertiveness than before… but then he sees the title on the book’s green leather cover -  _ The Magic Behind Ingredients. _

His expression slightly softness and his tone shows a hint of concern as he finally speaks.

\- Alchemy book? Do you have any problems in class?

Her defined brows shoot up as her eyes move to meet his.

Momentary, she feels crippling anxiety overwhelming her senses. The prefect was commanding, cold, proud and sometimes unbearably obnoxious, but even all that couldn’t change how attractive he was. Most girls from their house were thirsting over him… And as big of a secret as she was making of it - Yasmine was no exception.

He was so very handsome with his sharp jaw, eyes so blue they were almost violet and beautifully defined cheekbones, but that could never be enough for her heart to flutter. What won her over was his determination. The ambition he was radiating with. The way she almost struggled to destroy him in a chess game. How he cared for every single one of Slytherins that were under his supervision. The one of the kind mix of physical and intellectual perfection that he was.

Her heart was beating like crazy, but she could never let him see her weakness for him. Why would she? It’s not like it’s her dream come true to be rejected and then looked down upon even more by her prefect.

She combs through her thick, black curls and takes a deep, steady breath. All there’s left is the hope that in the dim light of the fire he can’t see her fiery blush.

\- Don’t worry. I was just curious about subjects that our course did not include. I’m still  _ Outstanding _ in alchemy classes. The house’s score is not endangered.

Vicor cocks his head, but says nothing. Makes no sound actually, until he lets out a heavy sigh and speaks up sounding even more tired. His fingers rubbing his temples.

\- Come on, dummy. Let’s just go to sleep. You can’t keep staying up all night like this. You’re gonna run me ragged before the end of the year…

This time it is Yasmine who sighs as she closes her book and then again as she stands up streaghting up her ankle length, green sleeping gown and grey cashmere cardigan he wears over it. 

\- Why do you even care, Victor? It’s not your responsibility to make sure everyone’s asleep...

She moans, turning her pouty face to him.

The warm light of the fireplace makes her tan complexion beam in a dark room. The color of her pajamas brightens up her hazel eyes. Her full, raspberry lips gleam with the balm she must have applied before. Her high cheekbones are still adorably flushed now that her face is fully exposed to the prefect.

He says nothing. Just frowns and shakes his head. Unwilling to let her see just how enchanted he is by her exotic beauty.  _ Again _ . 

Victor has already implied his keenes towards her on multiple occasions, but Yasmine was making it very clear for him that either she was rejecting him or was so uninterested that it wouldn’t even cross her mind that he could be. Sometimes however, like now for example, she was almost cruel with it. Just implying that since he made no move at her, his feelings are either irrelevant or nonexistent - which is very untrue.

Then, if that wasn’t an awful situation already, there’s that bloody Yule Ball coming and Victor could not stop himself from thinking how he could ask her to go with him. It’s a battle not to do that there and then, but if he is to actually act on that at all, he has to be much more prepared. Have flowers or… Something.  _ Anything _ . Especially after he heard a few rumors circulating about her already denying invitations. There are even names flowing around… And it’s hard to tell what would hurt the prefect more. The rejection or the fact that everyone knows about it.

\- Just go to bed, Dummy.

He growled under his nose.

\- Why do you have to make it all so much harder.

He quickly added with a very much inadvertent, irritated scoff.

The time freezes as their eyes meet once more. Both of them trying to see through the stoic expressions of their faces, but to no vain.

After some time - a minute, a quarter, an hour maybe - it's her that speaks up first. Clearly confused and a bit hesitant to say anything at all.

\- What else am I making harder? Like, the top student thing or…

She doesn’t even have another bet. Why would she ever end it with “or”? Who knows.

\- Or.

He answers dryly and Yasmine takes it as more than a clear sign for her to retreat. She turns around, peeped a quiet goodnight and rushes to the other side of the room with her book pressed against her chest for comfort.

She shouldn’t have said that. She should not have said anything. Maybe just a polite ‘sorry’. Definitely not a ‘what’ question… Although a ‘why’ question could even go worse.

All the awkward moments they shared suddenly came rushing through her head. When she fell off the ladder in the library. He caught her and she started crying, because she got scared. That was the first time he called her a dummy. Then when she slipped on the ice during a walk and couldn’t stand up for half an hour. Then Yasmine finally stood, she slipped again almost right away and screamed so loud he heard her from  _ quite  _ afar and carried her back to school. He called her a dummy a hundred times that day because she didn’t call for help and got an awful cold afterwards in addition to her twisted ankle. Or when accidently she basically tore a pastry off his hand one time during dinner. Or how after analysing his game with one of her friends from the chess club she called him a pathetic player who should pay the club a compensation for destroying their reputation. He was sitting by the table next to her when she said that...

\- Yasmine, wait.

The girl freezes in place. Too stressed and ashamed by the whole situation and still too mesmerized by looking into his eyes for so long to figure she should at least turn her head towards him.

\- I have something to ask you for.

A moment of silence.

\- Um-hm?

She swallows hard. Then so does he - hesitating for a while longer.

\- Come to the Yule Ball with me.

Yasmine’s eyes blow wide and her chest stills mid-breath. Ready to scold him for teasing her despite that tired act he was putting up she turns around. Fury painted her cheeks red and pushed her lips into a thin line… But what she sees is not the face of a joking man. His cheeks were pink. Jaw tensed. Hands entwined behind his back. He looked stressed. Just like all of the other boys that asked her to the ball.

The answer however wasn’t that easy to voice. Not this time.

She is going to no ball under no circumstances - at least that’s what she previously decided. She is not going to make a clown of herself by pretending to not be the stiffest arabian dancer in the world, and yes, dead, dry branches laying on the desert's sands are also included in the statistics. Yasmine’s grandma would never forgive her for bringing such shame on their family… But this time the situation was so much more than just not feeling comfortable with dancing in public.

Because it was Victor Li. The guy she was crashing over asked her to go on a ball with him. To dance with him there and maybe hold hands or whatever people do on such events. Her. Out of every single girl in the school, despite the fact that probably every single one would agree much more enthusiastically. However it doesn’t change the fact that Yasmine already denied a few of her friends telling them she is not willing to go there at all. If now she agrees to go with Victor she would have a memory to never forget - either good or bad one, depending on how the night goes - and possibly less to no friends at all. If the night was to go well, friends might be worth losing, but given the huge possibility of it going bad…

Yasmine sighs heavily and shakes her head as her gaze meets the tips of her toes.

\- I’m really sorry, Victor, but I can’t go with you. I already decided that I don’t want to go there.

The sincere tone of her voice made Victor grimace with one of his eyebrows raised up to the ceiling.

\- If you’re sorry, then just change that decision. Come with me.

\- I can’t.

\- How so?

Yasmine lips part in an attempt to form a replay, but when she realises what the answer to this question is, she closes them once more.

So they stood there. Looking at each other for a long while before he finally spoke - his mind at last enlightened by the lost expression on her face.

\- Listen, Yasmine. I thought I’ve made it clear enough, but maybe it’s time for me to finally voice it. I like you. I have for some time now.

Girl’s eyes grow almost painfully wide. Her face gets pale and her legs bend under her weight… Yet she still remains silent.

\- I was waking up in the middle of the night every night to check if you’re in your dorm for the last month for God’s sake. Do you really think I would do that for anyone with  _ good grades _ ?

He stopped for a moment to let out a heavy sigh and rub his temples.

\- When you were sick and with an injured leg I was visiting you everyday until they moved you back to your dorm and even then, I was always sneaking some sweets for you out of the dining hall, because you wrote me a letter saying they don’t allow you to have any.

Victor once more sighs, as he notices his tone growing not only more frustrated, but also louder. The shiver that shakes his whole body aggressively goes down his spine and suddenly he finds himself slowly walking towards his confused converser.

\- Did you really think I was doing it for some selfish reasons? If I was caught, whole house would suffer consequences of-

He cuts suddenly. This time managing to control his sudden slipperiness of a tongue. 

The usually very serious and deliberate man now a pile of his own overflowing emotions that he was suppressing for the last two years. The man unexpectedly struck by his feelings which pushed him to stop in front of her and delicately put his hand on her cheek.

\- I like you, too. But, I’ve already told-

That was well over enough for Victor to take. She’s so pretty for him as she looks up into his eyes. Her cheeks flushed and her lower lip trembling as she speaks. He knows he probably should, but he couldn’t stop his thumb from stroking her lip in an attempt to hush her. 

Which worked very well.

Yasmine’s arms slowly and cautiously reach around his waist in a gesture she longed for, for a very long time - an innocent but thoroughly affectionate caress. Her palms slowly traveled up and down his ribcage to then move backwards and rest on his shoulder blades. Simultaneously, one of Victor’s hands comes to rest on the small of her back while the other one still strokes her lips.

\- Come to the Yule Ball with me, babe.


End file.
